Günther-Eberhardt Wisliceny (5 September 1912 in Regulowken, now Możdżany, Giżycko County - 25 August 1985 in Hanover) was a German Waffen-SS Obersturmbannführer. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern). The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its higher grade Oak Leaves and Swords was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.

Career

Wiscliceny enlisted in the SS-Stabswache Berlin in 1933, he was posted in 1938 to the Der Führer Regiment, seeing his first action as a company commander in the Balkans in spring 1941. He spent 1941 to 1943 on the Eastern Front and 1944 in France, fighting in all the battles of the senior SS divisions, and being wounded four times. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross for leadership of a battalion during the battles for the Kursk salient in July 1943. He received the Oak Leaves on 27 December 1944, at the Normandy invasion front. The Swords were awarded for his actions in the Ardennes, Hungary and Austria. In 1945 he was handed over by the US Army to the French during investigations into his division's war crimes at Tulle and Oradour-sur-Glane, but was released in 1951.

His brother Hauptsturmführer Dieter Wisliceny served in the staff of Obersturmbannfuhrer Adolf Eichmann. He was involved in the deportation of the Hungarian Jews in 1944. He was tried for war crimes and executed in Bratislava on 4 May 1948.

Awards

• Wound Badge in Gold
• Infantry Assault Badge in Silver
• Iron Cross
  • 2nd Class (27 July 1941)
  • 1st Class (1 November 1941)
• German Cross in Gold on 24 April 1943 as SS-Hauptsturmführer in the III./SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment "Deutschland"
• Close Combat Clasp in Gold
  • Bronze (1943)
  • Silver (1 April 1944)
  • Gold (31 March 1945)
• 2 Tank Destruction Badges for Individual Combatants
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords
  • Knight's Cross on 30 July 1943 as SS-Sturmbannführer and commander of the III./SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment "Deutschland"
  • 687th Oak Leaves on 26 December 1944 as SS-Obersturmbannführer and commander of the III./SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 3 "Deutschland"
  • 151st Swords on 6 May 1945 as SS-Obersturmbannführer and commander of Panzergrenadier-Regiment 3 "Deutschland"